Fairlight

Keith Pollard

Pews News: This Sunday, there’s to be Harvest Family Worship at St Andrew’s at 10.30 am. A crèche area is available. Later, at 6 pm, there is Informal Communion at St Peter’s.

A gentle reminder, before the withdrawal symptoms close in, that the last opportunity in 2017 to climb St Andrew’s church tower and have a go at ringing the bells, will be tomorrow Saturday, September 30. Miss it and you’ll have to wait until next year.

Tools With A Mission: This project will be exceptionally active in the parish next week, when St Andrew’s will be open to receive any and all gifts of your currently unused tools. These can be craft tools, knitting and similar tools, those for gardening, or woodworking, or decorating, or general DIY, and can be manual or electric. Any tools that you no longer need or use will be sorted into ‘trade’ packs, made sure they work, and shipped overseas to help less fortunate individuals to establish a lasting income. In a way, this scheme appears to be a cross between the financial support of Christian Aid and the Shoe-Box project, which supplies toys and essentials to thousands of underprivileged children abroad every Christmas, except that the tools initiative is aiming to allow underprivileged adults to set up and sustain a source of income. As with the two other charitable endeavours mentioned above, donors are no longer merely the regular churchgoers among us, as these appeals are so self-evidently worthy in their own right they are attractive to all-comers. Now’s the moment to get rid of Auntie Flo’s purl of a knitting machine, and Uncle Herb’s redundant JCB… Check out their website, which is at twam.uk

MOPPs today and next Friday: Today, Friday, September 29, the entertainment that will do you good is by Celia King with her chair-based exercises. Then comes lunch, which will be ham, egg and chips, and a sweet of sticky toffee pudding and custard.

Next Friday, October 6, is Member’s Day, and there will be Tombola, too, and some of Nicola’s toenail cutting expertise as well. Luncheon will consist of quiche, baked potato and salad black forest gateau to follow.

Speak up at the back!: Tonight, it’s audition time for the Panto Group’s January 2018 show, Hans Christian Anderson’s The Snow Queen, a title they haven’t tackled before. The auditions are being held in the village hall, starting at 7 pm, and beginning with the younger applicants. Rehearsals normally begin later in November, when the Players’ first production of the season is over, and build up over December and January. Over the years countless residents, plus those from outside the village, have been involved in one or many more of these annual romps. Wouldn’t you like to be part of it all? Get along this evening, then, and give it a go! You concentrate hard for a coupe of months, and when the fun of the show is over, you’re likely to find the worst of the winter is behind you. Painless. Oh, yes it is!!

The Royal British Legion will be racing ahead with fireworks tomorrow: The RBL are having an Evening of Racing with a Bang tomorrow Saturday, September 30 at 6.30 for the first race at 7 pm. Branch Chairman John Pulfer and his wife Margaret, along with Maggie Boulter, will be there at the venue – the Fairlight Lodge, ready not only for the racing but for fireworks as well, with these starting at about 9.15 pm. This has all the hallmarks of being an excellent evening’s entertainment for a mere £8, and you are urged to obtain your tickets from the Post Office, or by ringing Margaret on 814866, or Maggie on 812104.

Any questions?: Yes, quite a few. For Bob and Dec, who have made a name for themselves as latter day Inquisition, will be posing the questions on Saturday, October 14 in the village hall, at 7 for a 7.30 pm start. Tickets are £5 each from the Post Office, and each team can have a maximum of six members. The quiz is for the Residents Association, and lite bites will be provided. You’ll need to take your own drinks.

The Gardening Club’s October meeting: The meeting is at 2.30 pm next Monday, October 2, in the village hall, when the speaker will be Jackie Aviolet, who will be telling of Herbs – Culinary, Cultivation and Folklore. Jackie is an extremely popular speaker who has been here before. Don’t miss her this time! Non-members are always welcome on payment of a humble £2 – but then for only £6 per household, you can join the Club and benefit from all their meetings and the competitive prices at the Gardening Hut.

The Tuesday Ladies Club: The September speaker for the TLC was Roger Hambrook of Friary Gardeners. After horticultural college, Roger, who began gardening at 14, first worked on a small island off the coast of Ireland and then answered an advertisement for Friary Gardeners who were based at that time at Greyfriars in Winchelsea. Friary Gardeners is a charity and part of the Parchment Trust in Hastings. They moved to what had been Ore Place Farm in 1995 and as well as their walled gardens (one of which was designed and planted by Fergus Garrett of Great Dixter), polytunnels, wood turning, ceramics also manage the ruins of St. Helens Church where several Canadian war casualties are buried. Their aim is to provide horticultural training for adults with learning as well as physical disabilities and they produce beautiful plants at very reasonable prices as well as bird boxes and the like. Their future plans are to open a shop and a cafe, so watch the board at their entrance on The Ridge, right on the bend. They grow an astonishing quarter of a million plants every year and undertake outside work, too. The farm is rented from Jesuits who are also a charity and cannot therefore undercharge for the lease. Fortunately, Friary Gardeners were given help by MP Amber Rudd when they were having difficulties in obtaining a grant. They are open on Mondays to Fridays from 9 am to 3.30 pm, as well as on some Sundays and Bank Holidays.

The Ladies next meet on October 17, when Delia Taylor will be telling the story of ENSA ‘Every Night Something Awful’. Entertainments National Service Association was the organisation that sent performers out to entertain the serving troops virtually all over the world during th Second World War. Countless famous actors and variety stars were used by ENSA, most famously Vera Lynn. There were so many places where the troops needed entertaining that sometimes the performing talent was spread very thin indeed! Visitors, including the menfolk, will be very welcome at £2 and the meeting, in the village hall, starts at 2.15pm

Wine & Social Club - Wine Tasting, Tim Fletcher

Monday 09 October 2017, 19:30

Walking for your Health: The on-going series of walks, starting from the village hall at 10.30 am on the first and third Mondays of each month, continues with the latest walk being on Monday next. Could this be the one to start with if you haven’t been before?

The Wine and Social Club: The club meets on Monday week, October 9 at 7.30 pm. It’s going to be a Wine Tasting with Tim Fletcher. These are always popular, and members are urged not to miss out. Hic!

A flu jab reminder: Those among you who see the doctors from the Harold Road practice are reminded that this season’s flu jab sessions are at the village hall on Thursdays, October 5 and 19, between 10 and 11 am. If you can’t make either of these dates, there are sessions at the surgery, and you should check with them for times and dates.

Parking Waites for No Man: We live in a delightful village, where the authorities think we are civilised and intelligent and are certainly not in need of yellow lines or speed bumps on our roads. The authorities’ confidence may be misplaced. Some weird parking has occurred recently, much of it in Waites Lane, which radically alters the configuration of the road layout, and makes creeping past stationary vehicles a risky business. As sure as eggs is eggs, when you poke your bonnet out, something big, relentless and very unforgiving will come the other way without let or hindrance, offended that anyone should usurp ‘their’ right of way. They appear not to realise or care that, at the moment you moved, with such limited visibility, they were nowhere to be seen. Their ignorant intolerance would be better suited to Leyton High Road at 5 pm on a wet Wednesday. Sooner or later someone will suffer. It’s likely to be the poor parker, whose car will get caught in a pincer movement. Ouch.